


Blame it On My Socially Awkward Dads

by Willow_bird



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: First Date, Gender Queer OC, M/M, Natalie has her first date, Neil and Andrew are DisasterDads, Neil and Andrew have kids, Neil wears a sweater vest, Other, inspired by "Blame it On My Youth" by youreyestheyglow, okay its mostly Neil that's a disaster, this got super sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25321891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow_bird/pseuds/Willow_bird
Summary: Natalie and Paige have been living with Andrew and Neil for two years now, and Natalie has a date coming for dinner! Now, which dad is gonna make this awkward? The answer may surprise you.----This fic is directly inspired byyoureyestheyglow'sfucking INCREDIBLE ficBlame It on My Youth.
Relationships: Natalie Minyard-Josten/Dane Winters, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 37
Kudos: 270





	Blame it On My Socially Awkward Dads

**Author's Note:**

  * For [youreyestheyglow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youreyestheyglow/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Blame It on My Youth](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24648907) by [youreyestheyglow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youreyestheyglow/pseuds/youreyestheyglow). 



> I couldn't help myself. My fingers slipped. Some of the dialogue is taken directly from youreyestheyglow's respond comments in chapters 11 and 12 of Blame It on My Youth.

Oh. This was gonna go _great_.

Natalie stared blankly at her dad where he was fussing about the kitchen, finishing up dinner. They were at about t-minus not-nearly-enough-time-for-her-to-fix- _this_ until Dane arrived. Her _date_ Dane. Dane who smiled at her like she hadn’t almost broken their nose with her locker the first time they met. Dane who always grabbed her a chocolate milk from the lunch line even though Natalie told them they didn’t have to. Dane who was basically the best friend she’d ever had (other than Paige, but sisters didn’t count) and had the absolutely most ridiculously adorable blush that turned their ears bright red whenever Natalie called them ‘ _Sunshine_ ’.

(Okay, the “Sunshine” thing had kinda-sorta started out as a joke? Because Dane was so _sunny_. She’d meant it as an insult. Or, she’d tried too. At first, Dane had just laughed and been kinda confused (because Dane was also kind of an adorable idiot sometimes), but then once they’d kissed… well, yeah.)

ANYWAY. Dane was coming over for the first time and having dinner with the family before they went out on their date. Dane was nervous, but Natalie had told them not to be - because Paige already loved them and, honestly? - if the parentals didn’t like them, _fuck the parentals_. 

Nat didn’t think they’d have any reason not to like Dane, though. Dane was just an idiot. An adorable idiot. _Her_ adorable idiot. 

Oh my god, she needed to fucking stop like now. She had bigger problems right now - the main one being that Dad was wearing a fucking _sweater vest_. What he _trying_ to embarrass her!?

Instead of taking this up with Dad, because after living with them for two years Natalie knew very well that Neil was not to be trusted with his own wardrobe choices, she turned instead to Parental No. 2, marching into the living room where he was reading a book and Paige was doing homework. “Vader you fucking asshole, how the fucking hell could you _allow_ him downstairs in that?!”

Andrew blinked at her, utterly deadpan, as if he had no idea what the fuck she was talking about. “I don’t control what Neil does.”

“No, but I thought you had _standards_ at the very least. He’s wearing a sweater vest, V. A _sweater vest_. I didn’t even know he _owned_ one of those! This is not okay!”

Paige looked up at this point. “Nat, I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not like Dane is gonna care. They’re over the moon for you. If anything, they’ll probably admire the thread count or something.” While not necessarily wrong, because Nat was learning that Dane could be weirdly nerdy about random shit, Natalie was unwilling to pay attention to the intrusion and instead kept her ire focused determinedly on the dad that was _supposed_ to be the fashionable one (or at least as fashionable as an old person could be). 

Andrew heaved a sigh and made a big fucking dramatic show about locating his bookmark, putting it in his book, closing it, finding just the right spot on the table to put the book down, then slowly standing up. By the time he was finally on his feet, it was a wonder Natalie hadn’t bludgeoned him with her own damn shoe. 

She followed after him as he headed into the kitchen to confront Parental No. 1 - Dad the Fashion Fucking Disaster. 

Neil turned around as Andrew entered the kitchen and Natalie cleared her throat before they lost precious time while the dads did their gross shmoopy eye-contact thing. 

Pops shot her a look that was a form of ‘uninterested neutral’ that Natalie had long since learned to interpret as his _amused_ face. She didn’t want amusement. She wanted this fixed!! She made a pointed gesture. 

Dad raised a brow and looked at them. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

Andrew sighed and gestured to the sweater vest in question. “It’s just dinner. What’s with the vest?” There was less judgement in his tone than Natalie would have liked, but she supposed it was better than nothing. 

Dad blinked, then looked down at the atrocity and grinned. “Do you like it? Nicky sent it to me. I figured I might as well look a bit nicer since this means so much to Nat.” He then looked at _her_ and, oh no, he was doing the thing. The thing where he was all hopeful and nervous and trying to hide it. They were weird ass parents, and while Andrew seemed to accept that she and Paige didn’t have like, huge expectations or anything, Neil was always trying so _hard_. She saw him lift a hand as if to touch his face, then stop himself and brush both hands down the front of his vest. 

Suddenly she got it. The sweater vest was ridiculous but it was almost _painfully_ tame. It was soft and weird and just way not Neil at all, but it was a softness that was in total opposition to the scars all over his face. They were hardly a secret. Dane wasn’t huge into exy or anything, but she knew that they’d seen both her dads around - peripherally at school functions at the very least. Plus, Dane had access to the internet. 

But Dane was important to Natalie, and Neil (because he was an idiot, Pops said it all the time and it was _true_ ) didn’t want to scare them off. 

“Ugh. Dad. Dane isn’t gonna care about your face being fucked up, okay?”

She couldn’t _quite_ read the expression on Pops’s face, but his voice was little _too_ casual when he said, “Then I guess they won’t care about your dad wearing a sweater vest.”

Natalie felt her cheeks start to heat up, but just as she opened her mouth to retort, the doorbell rang. 

Andrew, the asshole, smirked at her. “Better get that.”

“Ugh!” Throwing up her hands, Natalie turned around and hurried to the door. She allowed herself just one moment to fuss with her hair and make sure that her jeans were zipped and her shirt wasn’t riding up weird in the back, then she opened the door. 

“Dane! Hey!” Smiling this much was _so_ weird, but ever since Dane kissed her it kept happening spontaneously whenever she was around them, like some kind of a weird emotionally allergic reaction. 

“Hey Natalie,” Dane said in their soft, warm voice. Natalie had never heard Dane yell. In fact, she’d never head Dane so much as raise their voice, even when they got _way_ too excited talking about geodes. “Thanks for having me over for dinner.” They shifted about, tugging on their sleeves in a nervous gesture Natalie had picked up on within the first two days since Dane had transferred into her class. 

“Honestly, I probably should have had you over sooner. The parentals have been bugging me about it almost since you moved here.” Because Natalie hadn’t shut up about Dane since they’d moved here, Nat was self-aware enough to realize. They’d just… hit it off from day one, that was all. And Natalie was almost embarrassingly open with her family, in a way that she never would have imagined being possible only a few years ago. So, when Dane had shown up, Natalie had talked about them. And when Natalie started crushing _hard_ , she’d talked about that too. And when Dane had asked if they could kiss her last week during lunch when they’d been hiding out in the band room, then asked her out, Natalie had basically screamed ‘OH MY GOD THEY KISSED ME I’M DEAD’ the second she got home. 

It was a mess. _She_ was a mess. 

But like, Dane was here. So, it was maybe not a _bad_ mess. At least, not an irreparable one. 

“Well, are you going to keep them in the doorway all night or are you gonna come in and eat?” Natalie scowled over her shoulder to where Dad had entered the foyer, drying his hands on a hand towel. He was still wearing _the vest_.

“Hello, Mr. Minyard-Josten,” Dane murmured politely as they entered the house, even taking off their shoes right there and moving them neatly onto the shoe-mat. 

“You can call me Neil. The short one is Andrew.” He pointed to Pops and Natalie rolled her eyes. 

“Dad, you’re both, like, below height requirement for every roller coaster ever. Even _Dane_ is taller than you.” It was true. Natalie had checked. 

Dane pressed one hand to their mouth in a self-conscious attempt to hide their smile and Natalie fought back the urge she had every time Dane did it to reach out and jerk their hand away. “Um, okay. Thank you very much. It’s nice to meet you both.”

“If the manners are an act because of the whole meet-the-parents thing, you can give it up. We literally do not give a shit.” This was from Pops, and Natalie gave a commiserating sigh. 

“No, they’re just like that. Don’t worry, I’m working on it.” She ignored the adorably confused look on Dane’s face and grabbed their hand, tugging them further into the house and straight to the kitchen, where dinner was already on the table and waiting. 

“So what’s for dinner?” Dane asked as they took a seat. Paige was meandering in at the same time and the two exchanged friendly waves. 

“Rabbit!” Oh no. Dad sounded way, _way_ too chipper about that. Natalie watched warily as she took her own seat beside Dane and Neil continued to talk. “Natalie caught it herself.” He was positively _beaming_ with pride and it was so fucking embarassing. “I remember when she was first learning how to use knives. Her Aunt Renee was teaching her mostly, though Andrew helped out. One step at a time, from being able to draw quickly and aim for the softest parts until she could do it by muscle memory and instinct all the way to different techniques of how to kill and carve up different game. And today she not only caught the rabbits herself but she skinned and butchered them and prepared them, too. Not a single flinch or hangup about the blood or--”

“Despite what my husband may have you think,” Pops cut in - thank _God_ \- while loudly tossing a dinner roll at the fucking idiot Natalie was cursed with having for a Dad, “our daughter is not a psychopath.”

Natalie dared to look over at Dane at this point, sure she was going to have to try and talk Dane into not cancelling their date and calling 911 immediately. To think, half an hour ago she’d been worried about _sweater vests_.

But Dane only gave a small, sweet smile and shrugged. “I know she’s not a psychopath.”

Something full and light and scary and wonderful lit up in Natalie’s chest like a fucking firework. It sparked and popped, leaving the imprint of a grin on her face like the ghost of celebratory smoke in the sky at the festival - an expression completely out of her own control, inevitable in the wake of that strange, exhilarating fire in her chest. When Dane looked over at her and then _smiled_ , Natalie only grinned wider, and then Dane’s hand found hers under the table and she knew that there was absolutely no way that even her socially disfunctional dads could fuck this up. 

“Don’t worry about the dads,” Natalie said with a small squeeze to their hand. “They’re all bite and no bark.”

Dane blinked, then tilted their head in that adorably confused way of theirs, a smile tugging at their (super kissable) lips. “Don’t you mean that the other way around?” they said with a small laugh. 

“Nah,” Natalie assured, and this time she turned her affectionate smirk on her family. “They’re like lightning-struck trees, barkless and on fire.”

It sounded ridiculous, but it was the utter truth, and she knew her dads and her sister understood what she meant. When she looked at Dane, she saw something hopeful and warm in their eyes, along with a deeper understanding that made everything in Natalie sing _this one this one this one, this one is mine_.

“That sounds like some kind of beautiful disaster,” Dane said with that same smile shining like the autumn sun on their lips.

“Yeah,” Natalie agreed, not looking away from their eyes. “It absolutely fucking is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I headcanon that Natalie thinks of Andrew as "Pops" and Neil is "Dad". She jumps around between calling Andrew Pops or Vader out loud, but she pretty exclusively thinks of him as Pops in her head. 
> 
> I got really attached to Dane... I legit have their whole backstory in my head now o.o


End file.
